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French farmers protest against GMO maize destruction

Some 300 French farmers have demonstrated near the city of Toulouse in defence of a colleague, whose small scale crop of genetically-modified maize was destroyed by anti-GM protestors recently. This year sees large scale commercial cultivation of genetic crops for the first time in France.

The protest was led by the President of the French Association of Maize Growers (AGPM), Christophe Terrain, who said: It is farmers incomes that are being attacked. Anti-GM protestors are giving themselves the right to decide the life or death of French farms. Support for farmers growing GM crops also came from the French government with Agriculture Minister, Dominique Bussereau condemning the destruction as acts of vandalism. This year some 5000 hectares of French farm land will be used to grow GM crops, up from just under 500 hectares in 2005.

Coexistence is a success in Spain

An extensive number of hectares of genetically modified (GM) crops have been grown in Spain in coexistence with conventional and organic types of cultivation. The Spanish Fundacion ANTAMA put together evidence related to the coexistence of the different types of cultures since GM crops were first introduced in Spain, in 1998. The evidence shows that co-existence of GM and non-GM maize is a success in Spain. A flexible, farm-level system and seed company stewardship assure accurate traceability and labelling of GM products.

Funding and research are two inseparable features of scientific progress. It is an unfortunate reality that those who fund the research behind any endeavor are apt to do so in order to get results that empower an agenda as opposed to achieving a better understanding of a particular subject matter.

It is for this reason that we think there is a fantastic opportunity for new developments in agricultural research because of funding that can come from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. What we mean by this is simply: regulatory conditions and international banking procedure have made sending money a costly and cumbersome experience. So much so that sending a small amount of money from England to Madagascar is cost prohibitive.

What this means is that small donations from people interested in a field of research just don’t happen. If you only have 20 Euros to send but it costs 25 to send it…. well… do you think anyone will send? Probably not. That tends to restrict the funding options to those larger players that may or may not have the common good in mind.

With Bitcoin, however, it is possible to send microtransactions anywhere and to do it quickly with almost no cost. This feature is not on the radar of most people in the general public yet but we suspect that it will be within the next few years.

If you are not sure what bitcoin is or how it works then when suggest you visit a few websites to get some information.